The present invention relates to a still camera. More particularly this invention concerns such a camera having a pullout slide actuatable to advance the film within the camera.
A still camera is known wherein a film having a succession of frames is advanced stepwise or frame-by-frame past a shutter on actuation of a film-advance slide. This slide normally is moved for each incremental advance of the film relative to the camera housing, normally from a pushed-in position lying snugly against the housing to a pulled-out position projecting from the housing. A rack provided on or formed on this slide normally is connected to a takeup spool or wheel through a transmission or coupling arranged in such a manner that the travel of the slide relative to the camera housing between its end positions is directly proportional to the amount of film wound up by the takeup wheel.
Normally it is impossible to use in such an arrangement a so-called feeler and lockout arrangement which insures that once a frame of the film is properly aligned with the camera shutter film advance is stopped. Such mechanism cannot be provided either because the film must be displaced relative to the camera housing on displacement of the slide and the slide itself must be displaceable from its pulled-out position which corresponds to the ready position of the camera back into its pushed-in position for taking a picture, or because it is necessary that the slider move the same distance each time it advances a frame. Thus it is normally necessary to provide a planetary gearing arrangement between the slider and the film takeup wheel so as to allow the slide to move all the way into the desired pulled-out position or back into the pushed-in position. It is noted that as the film is wound up on the takeup spool the effective diameter of this spool increases so that it does not have to be rotated as much to take up a single frame as when this spool is empty and its effective diameter is smaller.
Another disadvantage of most of the known cameras of the above-described types is that they are relatively complex, containing considerable gearing. Thus, they are expensive to produce and failure-prone.